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Unique insightsinto the links between heinous crime

and capital punishment

Two veteran journalists profile landmark Supreme Court decisions on the death penalty, taking readers back to the crime scenes, presenting the very human stories of those victimized by brutal crime and those responsible for it, and tracing the cases to their final conclusion — either in the courtroom or the execution chamber.

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First Reads...

BILL MOYERS

“This book is a lightning strike. It quickens the mind, illuminates the landscape, and guarantees you will
see things differently—in this case, how the jagged edges of justice come to bear on decisions of life and
death. Clancy and O’Brien are journalists at the top of their class, where facts matter and reporting can
read like a novel.”BILL MOYERS, journalist, author, and managing editor, Moyers & Company

Barbara Walters

“Takes the smoke screen out of the capital-punishment debate and dishes out the realities: the challenges to judges and lawmakers posed by awful crimes, competing pressures on the scale of justice, and the role of victims in determining punishment. A great read and more. . . . An important book.”BARBARA WALTERS, ABC News

Jeffrey Toobin

“A thoughtful and fascinating look behind the headlines of some of the most grisly—and important—
murder cases at the Supreme Court.”